Apartheid-Era Players Reflect on South Africa's Game

By

Peter Wonacott

Updated July 10, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET

JOHANNESBURG—Jomo Sono, known as the Black Prince of South African soccer, was part of a generation of stars whose skin color barred them from playing for their national team. In 1977, he left his apartheid-riven country to play with the likes of Pelé of Brazil and Germany's Franz Beckenbauer on the New York Cosmos.

Mr. Sono bristled then over South Africa's racist policies, but today he is convinced that the pressure cooker of poverty, oppression and competition that apartheid created forced him to lift his game. "It made us stronger," the 55-year-old said in an interview.

ENLARGE

In June 1977, Jomo Sono, top, plays for the New York Cosmos.
Associated Press/CRP

The result was a trove of multiracial talent that South Africa probably hasn't seen since, say former players and current soccer administrators. "They played like people possessed," says Morio Sanyane, spokesman for the South African Football Association. "It was an exceptional era."

In the soul-searching that has followed South Africa's first-round elimination from the 2010 World Cup, the first host nation to suffer such a fate, several retired soccer players are hearkening back to the days of apartheid, when the sport was played widely by people of all colors, separately at first and then increasingly together as barriers fell, uniting them on the field even as the nation's race-based laws kept them apart off it.

During apartheid, soccer was popular across racial groups, but South Africa was banned from international competition because of its racially segregated government policies. Today, with the country hosting the World Cup, soccer's popularity is on the wane, largely confined to black townships, while elite and mostly white schools remain the preserve of rugby and cricket.

Debate now centers on how to revive the same broad participation in a new era. That elite soccer is now largely confined to black townships needs to change, says Ephraim "Shakes" Mashaba, who is South Africa's newly appointed "Under 23" head coach and also a former apartheid-era soccer star. "What we have to deal with is a question of attitudes. It's time to open the doors," he says.

Some believe the recent surge in support of the World Cup, and the mixed results of the national team, could force a turning point. Despite bowing out of the World Cup with a win over France, South Africa's national team has slipped far down the global rankings. Before the tournament, it was ranked 83rd in the world, compared with 19th in 1996, the year it won the African Cup of Nations.

This year, it wouldn't have qualified for the World Cup if it hadn't been the host. The team is looking for a new coach after Carlos Alberto Parreira, from Brazil, stepped down, but several former apartheid-era players say change needs to begin at the bottom.

"Many people don't want to accept that the standard of play has declined, but it has declined, tremendously," says Essop "Smiley" Moosa, who now coaches disadvantaged kids.

The 58-year-old Mr. Moosa is a rarity these days—someone of Indian descent involved in South African soccer. When he broke onto the scene in the early 1970s, Mr. Moosa played in a separate league for "coloreds" and Indians. Because of his ball-handling skills and light complexion, he was recruited to join a white team. After his first game, though, league administrators took a closer look at the person playing under the name Arthur Williams. They expelled him.

Through much of the 1960s, black and white soccer spectators were forced to sit apart in stadiums. In the rare events that teams of different color played each other, fights among fans often broke out after games, former players say.

Then in 1976, South Africa tried something different. Soccer authorities formed one team of black and white all-stars who trounced an Argentine team 5-0. Mr. Sono, the Black Prince, scored four of the goals.

To those on the South African team, the match was an affirmation of how competitive play had become. "When they put us together, we could beat any side," says Rodney Kitchin, the team's captain.

Others saw the game as a political stunt aimed at lifting suspension by FIFA, soccer's global governing body. "They were trying to hoodwink the rest of the world," says Joe Latakgomo, author of "Mzansi Magic" a history of South African soccer.

In any case, the multiracial soccer experiment was short-lived. A few months later, in June 1976, young people in the black township of Soweto took to the streets to protest apartheid. A police crackdown left more than 20 dead. FIFA expelled South Africa, and the flow of international players to the country slowed to a trickle.

The only teams that stayed financially afloat were those in the black league who were supported by a raucous fan base. The best nonblack players joined up with these teams, while many others left the sport.

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Today, white players face obstacles if they want to stick with soccer, according to Matthew Booth, the lone white member of South Africa's national soccer team. The black-owned professional teams haven't effectively reached out beyond their support base, he says, while mostly white schools pressure students into playing rugby and cricket.

"A lot of schools don't want to offer soccer," he says. "It's very wrong. It's robbing the country of talent."

A spokesman for South Africa's Department of Basic Education says the choice of sports is left to the school's governing board. "The government has no say over this," he said.

The euphoria around South Africa's hosting the World Cup has provided momentum for a revamp, stoking interest in the game among a young generation and rekindling support among those who have long since left the sport. Apartheid-era star Zachariah Lamola—such a quick thinker on the field that he was called "the Computer"—says he is ready to help out where he can. "If you look at where we are today, it shows how the sport can bring us together," he says, "despite politicians pulling us apart."

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